How to Stay Focused While Working From Home

Working from home can give you a number of liberties when it comes to creating your own schedule and making your own rules. Unfortunately, working from home can also be very distracting and can make being productive nearly impossible. While there are both pluses and minuses to working from home, distractions are ultimately one of the biggest issues that remote employees must overcome. With this in mind, there are several tips that can help you stay focused and stay on task when working from home.

Dress for Success

One of the many things that so many people enjoy about working from home is that it means you don’t have to abide by an office dress code. Working from home means you can literally roll out of bed and start working in your pajamas. While this can be comfortable, it can also be a big deterrent to your success and productivity levels. If you want to stay focused while working from home, get dressed in work-appropriate attire in the morning. Just the simple act of dressing like you are going to the office can get you in the mindset of getting in “work mode” instead of “home mode.”

Create a Separate In-Home Office

In order to really get in the work zone, you need to have an in-home office. It does not have to be large or particularly fancy, but it does need to be a separate space that is meant only for work. Do not just work on your couch or at your kitchen table. Having a separate home office means having a space that you can go to in the morning to start getting into work mode. It is also a place that you can leave when you are done working, meaning you can close the door, leave work behind and transition to home mode.

It is best if you home office is its own room, but the most important thing is that it is not a major communal space that everyone shares. Your family and friends need to understand that when you are in this space you are in work mode.

Take Scheduled Breaks

You need to have a set schedule in place in order to be productive at home, just like you do when you need to be productive at the office. When you work from home, it can be easy to feel like you can take breaks whenever you want to in order to attend to “home responsibilities.” However, instead of just getting up as you please to change the laundry or take the dog on a walk, make sure that you set scheduled breaks and put yourself on a set schedule. You need to have regularly scheduled breaks in the morning, at lunch, and in the afternoon — and you need to stick with it. Sure, no one else will know if you take extra breaks here and there, but you need to be as structured as possible in order to find the success you are looking for.

Working from home can be both a blessing and a curse. While it can be distracting to work from home at times, if you are diligent about creating a set structure and work on staying focused, you can start to be more productive during your work hours. All you need to do is recognize that there are both “work times” and “home times” during the day, even if your entire day takes place under the same roof.